Happily Ever After
by Bimadabomi
Summary: A look at the rest of Chandler and Monica's lives.


_  
**This is a story that I wrote a LONG time ago. I wrote it because the idea was in my head, then I thought I'd turn it into a prologue of a series. For example, this was to be the intro, then I was going to write all the things that happened here more in depth. Basically, I never got around to doing that lol. It took a lot more work than I thought, and I kept getting stuck. Sooo, I found this and decided that even though I didn't get this turned into a series, this part still might be fun to read. :) So now this is basically a quick overview of Chandler and Monica's lives after the finale, holla!**_

**Disclaimer** I don't own Monica, Chandler, Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, Joey, Mike, Emma, Jack, Erica, Ben, and/or any other characters that may show up in here. ;) (Wow, that list of I don't own just keeps getting longer and longer! lol.)  
__

I guess I should introduce myself.

I'm Monica. I'm disgusting. I stalk guys and keep their underpants.

Okay, not really. That's just one of those moments that you don't forget in your life. I mean, it happens to everyone. You admit to your friends and your brother that you're a sex addict just so you can keep your secret affair a secret.

What do you mean it hasn't happened to you? Well, consider yourself lucky.

Anyway, part of that introduction was true; my name is Monica.

I'm a chef. Not much to expand upon there, really. Well, there is, but that's a long story, and right now I think it's more important for you to learn about my family.

When I'm not working, I'm usually trying to control the circus. Or, as they're also known, my family. I call it the circus, because that's really what it is. Whenever you walk into our house, it's chaos. Besides me, there's my husband, three kids, three dogs, three cats, two goldfish, and a hamster. I think we're the only family where the pets have Well, that is if you ask our kids. The goldfish belong to our dogs, apparently, and the hamster apparently belongs to our cats.

I guess I should tell you about my family, in depth, as we start this story.

The only logical place to start is my husband. We've been married fifteen years, together for eighteen, and known each other, God, a lot more than that. I have to actually think about it, but we've known each other twenty-nine years. My God that's a long time. I still find it funny that there was a period of time when I hated him; now he's the most important person in my life. I seriously lucked out with him. If I had married anyone else, it would have never worked; at least, I can't imagine it working. I can't even _imagine_ being married to anyone else. We just work so well together. I don't think there's anyone else who would not only accept the fact that I'm obsessive, competitive, and bossy, but love me all the more for it. Sure, all the other guys I ever dated had pulled the It's endearing line, but for some reason I know he's the only one who truly thinks that. He's the sweetest person in the whole world, I swear. None of our friends used to believe me when I'd say stuff like that. But he is-- only I know that side of him. The sweet, romantic, charming side. And he's the most comforting, supportive person in the world. Anything I want to do, he's supporting me, telling me I can. Anything I'm upset about, he's there giving me a hug and holding me. He always kisses me on the side of my head as he pulls me into a hug when I'm upset. I don't know what I would do without that-- without him.

Our oldest child, by a few minutes that is, is Jack, who is nine. We adopted him, (not to mention Erica, but we'll get to her in a moment) three years after we got married. We had been told that our chances for conceiving on our own were small, and adoption was the method that worked best for us. Even though he wasn't ours biologically, he was in every other way. He was always a calm baby, taking in what was going on around him. Of course, that changed when he was three, and, like he was making up for lost time or something, he was all of a sudden into everything and going everywhere. He is one of those kids that the teachers always raved about. He's good in class, friends with all the kids, and was grasping everything. Now he continues to release his energy by playing soccer. He's really enjoying it, which I thank God for, because that boy needs some activity to keep him busy and release his energy. Even though Jack was adopted, he easily fits in. He's got dark hair and blue eyes, which are just coincidence. Chandler still swears that he has my eyes, even though it's not really possible.

Our oldest daughter, Erica, is nine as well, being that she and Jack are twins. She was our little surprise, being that we had only thought we were going to be adopting one baby. But nope, it was twins. It seemed like it would take more getting used to, going from thinking we were adopting one to having two. But it didn't, really. I guess once we brought Jack and Erica home we didn't know any different. Erica wasn't as calm of a baby as Jack was. She seemed to always be the one crying and waking Jack up, more than the other way around. But still, she wasn't too difficult to manage. It was more difficult trying to manage _both_ of them at once than either of them separately, obviously. Erica has light brown hair and the most gorgeous brown eyes. Maybe I'm so drawn to Erica's eyes because all my other kids, my husband, and myself, have blue eyes. But her eyes are incredibly gorgeous, you could get lost in them. She's got the most creative mind, too. Not artistic, but creative as in imaginative. Before she could read very well she took books and made up her own story to go with them. You can give her any few objects and she turns them into something you never would have thought of. A house, a dog, a boat, anything. She's always happy, too. It's rare that she's in a bad mood. She's always smiling and humming and just... happy.

I swear, from the moment they were born we loved them such a crazy amount. I was always worried, in the back of my mind, about adopting because I was worried that I wouldn't bond with the baby right away or something. But I was wrong about that, I did. Chandler did. It was crazy. The day they started kindergarten was, I think, the worst day of my life. I was in tears the whole morning, until we got to go back and pick them up. My fears were quelled somewhat when both Jack _and_ Erica came out of school happy and telling us how much they had enjoyed their days.

But anyway, I digress, you'll hear that story later. Having twins was such an experience... a great experience, yet tiring as well. I can't count the number of times Chandler and I argued over stupid things those first few months. But that's the great thing about us. We argue, and just as suddenly as the argument was started, it's been long forgotten. And it's true that we argued a lot over stupid things for a while, but there were _more_ times that we worked well together to undermined those two babies. Sometimes I could swear Jack and Erica were a team trying to see just how crazy they could make us. And at first I'd say their team was winning, which I, who hates to lose, did not like. I had no control of anything for a while there. But after a few months _our_ team got wise and we all of a sudden knew all their tricks and _we_ were winning. And I think since then we've always been winning.

As if Jack and Erica weren't enough to keep us busy for the rest of our lives, we added to our family when they were four. We'd never really talked about more children after we adopted Jack and Erica. We had always said we wanted a few kids. But once the news of us being unable to conceive on our own was given to us, we were thankful for just _one_ kid. And we ended up with _two._ The idea of adopting again once you have one child already seemed like it would be a harder process. But once we had two, we were unsure if it would happen at all. It would seem to me that if I was someone giving up my baby, I would want to give it to a family who had no children and desperately wanted one rather than a family who already had two kids. I don't think either of us really wanted to bring up the topic of what were we ever going to do. I knew we'd have to one day, but for the time being we were just focusing on Jack and Erica, and surviving those early years of raising twins.

But when they were three, almost four, there was no need to bring up the topic of trying to adopt again. Because somehow, I wound up pregnant. Yes, they had told us that our chances to conceive on our own were slim. No, they never said we _couldn't_. They had even told us back when we were given the news, that we should keep having sex on a regular basis because there was still a small chance it could happen. I was shocked, but so extremely happy. It was perfect. We no longer had to worry about adopting again, and I would finally have chance to experience pregnancy. When I told Chandler he was a little shocked as well, but you should have seen him the next nine months. He was so excited. Obviously we loved this baby no more than Jack and Erica, but there was just something about finally being able to have the pregnancy experience that was exciting.

The baby, who is five now, was born just a few days before Christmas. So we named _her_ Natalie, being that the name means born at Christmas. The pregnancy was fairly easy (as easy as it could be with two four year olds). Natalie, on the other hand, was not. Natalie was screaming and crying when she was born, and I swear she didn't stop until she was two. Okay, so maybe that's not exactly true, she wasn't that bad. But she did cry more than Jack or Erica. Everyone teased us that this was because she was ours biologically, and of course she was difficult, because the both of us were plenty difficult. I don't know, we have weird friends. Natalie looks exactly like me, and everyone knows this-- she has dark hair, blue eyes, and my face. However, if you talk to her, you know she's Chandler's daughter. She's constantly joking, and has a strange sense of humor about things. Not to mention the fact that she can never commit to anything. You ask her what she wants for lunch, she decides something, then changes her mind two minutes later. She's got an amazing artistic ability already, and she's only five. I have no idea where she got _that. _It certainty isn't from me, and Chandler insists that it isn't from him. I guess that's just from Natalie.

So there you have it, our kids.

I guess this brings me to all those pets we have underfoot.

This was a crazy epidemic that got started right after we moved into our house. Jack and Erica weren't even one yet when we found a stray puppy outside our back door. Chandler took her to one of those pet stores that do adoptions one day of the weekend. We didn't want to send her to the animal shelter, because we were afraid she'd never end up in a home. Well, we took her in one Saturday morning and dropped her off. Of course the whole time she was there, I was thinking about how I hoped nobody adopted her, because I was already attached to her. So when they called that night saying that she was still there and asking if we could come pick her up, I practically started crying. Needless to say, Chandler went and picked her up, and that was that, she stayed. I knew that Chandler was hesitant about having a dog, he never liked dogs much, but he would do anything to make me happy, and he knew that I'd already become attached to that dog. So he said nothing. Which is, one of the many reasons why I love him, but that's beside the point. We'd already had our share of serious name thinking, after just naming Jack and Erica less than a year ago. So we named the dog London, after the place we got together. How cheesy _is_ that? But actually, it was our friend Joey who suggested it, and we liked the cheesy sentiment behind it.

London was just the beginning of the Bing animals. She was the only one we had for a while, since we also had two small kids. But between Jack and Erica and Natalie we added some more. We found a stray kitten in our yard, and we didn't even try to take him and find him a home; he had found his own home. I'm allergic to cats, yeah. But Phoebe and Mike had gotten a cat of their own a few years ago, and if I ever wanted to be in their house without sneezing, I had to do something about my allergies. Luckily that's not too hard these days. So anyway, by the time we found this kitten I had already been on allergy medication. He was named Sullivan. We still have no idea how we arrived at that name for that tiny kitten; however, it just fit. Then a woman at my work announced that a cat had a litter of kittens, and there were two no one had adopted. She kept trying to get people to adopt them, but with two kids, a cat, a dog, and a Chandler, I wasn't about to be the one to take them. Until one day when she told me that she was going to drop them off a the animal shelter because she couldn't find anyone to adopt them. So that night I came home with two kittens, waiting for Chandler's reaction. Amazingly enough, he just looked at me and laughed. I had been expecting him to freak out and say the last thing we needed was two cats. He didn't. Since there were two of them, we decided to give them a theme name. That's how Romeo and Juliet came to live with us. (They were super close to being named Ross and Rachel, after our friends, one of which happens to be my brother, and the other my sister in law, since we thought their names certainly were a dynamic duo after all they went through before they finally got together for good.)

When I was pregnant with Natalie, we acquired another dog. The same way that Romeo and Juliet came to find us. This time, though, it was Chandler who brought home the dog. I never thought I'd see _that_ day. Some guy who he worked with had a puppy that he had adopted, and then decided he didn't want anymore. Enter Violet. Violet came pre named, and we liked it enough, so we didn't change it. Violet is, without a doubt, Chandler's dog. Of course, everyone loves her, and she loves everyone, but she's Chandler's dog. Which surprised me at first, because he hated dogs at one time. Then again, the man is always surprising me. If you had told me, uhh, let's say 20 years ago that he would be married, with three kids and a bunch of pets, and extremely attached to a dog, I might have died. Let alone if you had told me he'd be married to me. Anyway, that's beside the point. I still have a dog, two goldfish, and a hamster to tell you about.

After Natalie was born, she was about one, the family across the street had a dog who had puppies. One of the puppies got away and stumbled into our front yard. Jack and Erica found him (well, one of them did, but each of them claims they were the one who found him) and they instantly became attached. I couldn't tell them we couldn't keep him, after what had happened with me and London. So I told them if we kept him, this was the _last_ pet for now. Well, we kept him all right. Jack and Erica named him, since he was dog. meaning that they play with him and name him, and Chandler and I take care of him. They argued over the name for a week and a half before they each picked their favorite and Chandler flipped a coin. Jack won, and he was named Riley. Erica won't admit that she was upset her name didn't win (her choice was Logan), but I know she is. Chandler says that she gets that not wanting to admit stuff from me. I won't admit it, of course, but he's right.

Phew! Almost done. Anyway, the goldfish. They were won by Erica at her school halloween carnival last halloween. We let her play because we never thought she'd win... and she did. So that's where Logan and Erica Jr., the goldfish came from. Then there's the hamster named Lucky. One of Natalie's friends was giving it away, she had gotten it for a present and her parents didn't want her to keep it. Natalie begged us for it, and we finally gave in. What was one hamster in all this madness? She named it Lucky for whatever reason.

So there you have it. That's my circus, or my zoo, or, as I sometimes call them, my family. Chandler, Monica, Jack, Erica, Natalie, London, Sullivan, Romeo, Juliet, Violet, Riley, Logan, Erica Jr., and Lucky Bing. Wow. It sounds more like we have a whole bunch of kids, being that not one of our pets has a name I haven't heard on a child before. It might be crazy at times, but I wouldn't give up any of them for anything.

Not one of them.

Not even one of the goldfish.

_So there you have it! LOL._

is after my dogs. lol. 333

Thanks for reading!


End file.
